Indian River County sheriff candidates point fingers as they discuss separate jail breaks

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The candidates for sheriff have very different backgrounds in law enforcement but share one commonality: both men have had to respond to an escape from the Indian River County Jail under their watch.

Former Jail Capt. Bill McMullen, now running for sheriff, was in charge of the facility when three men escaped in December 2005. McMullen is challenging incumbent Deryl Loar, the former Florida Highway Patrol member who was in the third year of his term when two inmates broke out of jail in October.

As the Aug. 14 election approaches, the Republican candidates are pointing fingers at what went wrong to enable the escapes.

McMullen said the key for preventing escapes is to keep high-risk security inmates in individual cells under lockdown 23 hours a day. But Loar and the man he picked to replace McMullen as jail captain said it's not true that the high-risk inmates were arranged to be kept in solo cells.

"(Loar) changed some fundamental practices I put in place that would have totally prevented" the escapes of Rondell Reed and Leviticus Taylor last year, McMullen said during an interview with the Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers editorial board. "Those capital felons that we maintained after that 2005 escape were housed in single cells. They were not housed together so they could work together to do what they did in 2011."

Segments of the interview posted on TCPalm.com caught the attention of Lt. Selby Strickland, who was second in command under McMullen and now is the jail captain. Strickland said he and other staff members disagreed with McMullen's recount of the way inmates were handled after the 2005 escapes of Marty Finney, Edward Roberson and Keith M. Carter.

Sheriff's records from the jail released last month show the maximum security inmates were housed in blocks with nine cells from 2004 to 2008. But the high-risk population at the jail for those years was consistently about 15 each month for those years and reached as high as 25 in 2005. Strickland said the numbers show the high-risk inmates routinely had cellmates. Some cells would have three inmates, he said.

McMullen campaign spokeswoman Ginie Meadows said the challenger reviewed the documents but could not respond because he does not have access to the jail records from those years. McMullen could not be reached for further comment after several attempts were made by phone and e-mail.

"We could have the maximum security inmates in individual cells, but it would be a challenge," Strickland said. "Even if they're separated, they can talk through the bars."

McMullen said he and Strickland didn't agree about keeping the high-risk inmates in lockdown for nearly all of their days.

"They were on 23-hour-a-day lockdown, much like a death row inmate is," McMullen said. "They have to be managed differently than other inmates."

Strickland said he ended the practice of keeping all the high-risk inmates under the 23-hour lockdown when he took charge of the jail in 2011.

"Our accreditation reviewers said that opens yourself up to litigation," he said. "We have 12 of our 35 high-risk inmates on lockdown now. These are the guys who have shown they don't get along with anyone."

After the trio of inmates escaped in 2005 through a wall behind a shower, corrections staff were supposed to make sure the walls within the jail were secure to prevent another such escape. The pair who escaped last year went through their own cell and through an air-conditioning utility room.

"Unfortunately, after 2005, under (McMullen's) watch, the jail was not hardened," Loar said.

- Inmates Marty Finney and Edward Roberson escaped on Dec. 1 and made it to Colorado before they were captured. Finney sent an e-mail to a friend that enabled authorities to track them to a Denver-area motel.

- A third escapee, Keith M. Carter, was captured the night of the breakout.

- Then-jail commander Capt. Bill McMullen wrote in an after-action report the inmates were able to break out bars behind a cell wall that were not properly installed. There were no interior locks or alarms on the plumbing chase doors from which the three men exited. Officials also concluded more razor wire was needed across the top of the security fence.

- More than $5,000 was spent to add bars within the plumbing system.

- No correctional officers or jail employees were suspended or reprimanded because of the incident.

- On Oct. 26, cell mates Rondell Reed and Leviticus Taylor, who were kept in the high-risk area of the jail, sawed through some bars in their cell to access the air-conditioning ducts and knocked out the shaft. The men squeezed through an 18-inch-wide duct and used the bars they had removed to knock off the door knob in the maintenance area. They climbed the interior fence, using a blanket to lessen the cuts they might have suffered from the razor wire added in 2006, and dug underneath the exterior one as they fled.

- Jail Capt. Selby Strickland said metal bars were placed over the doors outside all maintenance rooms. Jail staff also replaced all the books in the law library and replaced them with a computer. Officials said the saw used by Reed and Taylor may have been hidden in a book.

- Bunks are now checked three times a day for high-risk inmates, Strickland said. Also, cell assignments are reviewed every 45 days.

- Two corrections deputies were suspended for five days each after an investigation concluded they failed to sufficiently check on the escaped inmates, who left their beds stuffed with newspapers.